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From what I gather, the problem with Interstate 70 between Glenwood Springs and the Western Metro Sprawl Province is that the highway is just too popular.
On nice summer days, or three-day ski weekends, the road can be bumper-to-bumper congestion, and gridlock often results when there's a rockslide or a jack-knifed semi. If the Colorado Department of Transportation fails to come up with some solutions, then Vail Resorts might report a quarterly earnings decline, or even worse, mountain real-estate prices could tumble -- and we all know that our state government has an unwritten constitutional duty to support the ski and real-estate industries.
Several solutions have been proposed, now that CDOT is holding hearings along the corridor to get suggestions as to what might be covered in an environmental impact statement that would be required before it does anything.
In the spirit of modern journalism, which demands disclosure of personal interests, I want to make it clear that I consider it in my interest to route every possible piece of mountain traffic through the I-70 Sacrifice Zone and to have people believe that U.S. 285 dead-ends somewhere around Conifer, and certainly before Bailey.
That said, let's look at some sensible ways to reduce congestion along that stretch of I-70.
· Monorail. Only the Disney Company seems able to make these function, and further examination shows that Disney builds these things in places like Anaheim and Orlando, where the annual snowfall is not measurable, let alone measured in yards.
Further, we have a perfectly good unused rail line to Minturn, just a couple of miles from Vail, and wouldn't it make more sense to try using it before building a new one? And if that's not sufficiently direct (people might fly into Pueblo, rather than Denver, thereby reducing DIA's income, and that would never do), then why not rebuild the old Denver, South Park & Pacific Railway line up the South Platte Canyon to Bailey and Kenosha Pass, then Como and over Boreas Pass to Breckenridge?
It ran until 1937. Rebuilding it would be expensive, but on the other hand, it's a proven year-round technology, as opposed to the monorail fantasies.
· Toll Booths. One proposal would collect tolls only during peak times, with the idea of spreading out traffic.
One problem is that the tolls would have to be steeper than the east face of Long's Peak for this to work.
Assume the peak-time toll is $20, and you've a carload of people who've been skiing the Summit on Washington's Birthday. They face a choice at 5 p.m. -- pay the toll and join the congestion, or hang around Breckenridge until 10 p.m. when the toll goes away.
It has been more than 20 years since I edited the newspaper there, and even then, it cost a lot more than $20 for a carload of people to while away five hours in Breckenridge (this holds even if you leave out the cost of the uncontrollable substances that were often a feature of whiling away hours in Summit County). The toll would have to be something like $500 per car to make it cheaper to hang around a resort town for five hours than to start driving home after the day's last run.
Tolls that high would be hard to sell to the public, but on the other hand, they would benefit the I-70 Tourism Industrial Complex industry by encouraging people to stay longer and spend more money.
That is, assuming they have the money to spend. This brings us to the best solution:
· Access Stations. Why settle for toll booths when we could set these along that stretch of Interstate 70?
Rather than merely collect money, these stations would examine each person's financial statement before allowing entrance into the World-Class Four-Season Amenity-Laden High-Country Wonderland.
Only those people who can afford $25 breakfasts, $75 lift tickets and $400 motel rooms would be allowed to proceed; all others would be turned back, although they could, of course, use the servants' entrances via Hoosier, Frémont and Tennessee passes.
This would solve most of the congestion problem on I-70 west of Denver, and it would assist our recreation and real-estate industries by pre-qualifying those who enter the zone through the main portal.
It would save valuable time for these vital industries if the state could screen out those impoverished fools who want affordable family recreation, or even more improbably, affordable lodging.
After all, what's our state government there for, and besides, does the Colorado National Guard really have anything better to do?
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